Just An Earring
by Assassin of the Shadows
Summary: How can getting something so simple, cause so much problems?


**Title:** Just an Earring  
**Author:** Assassin of the Shadows (AOTS)  
**Rating:** T - Teen (because I like T's)  
**Pairings:** SetoxJounouchi (HINTS!)  
**Summary:** How can getting something so simple, cause so much problems?  
**Word Count:** 1 582  
**Pages:** 3  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yugioh, the characters within, nor the merchandice shares, I am merely borrowing characters for personal and public enjoyment (This should be obvious by now...)  
**Warnings:** Teen rebillion, small violence that makes you go "Holy shit! Ow!" and emotionally-dead teens...

**Just An Earring**

When I was eighteen, my father said, "Jounouchi, I see you looking at those earrings, don't even think about it!"

Three days later I was sitting in the chair twirling a smart looking golden stud, having a small conversation with the woman who had done it. My father walked past the window, we shared a glance, and then he just shook his head and kept on walking.

Sometimes I like to tell myself, that I was the very reason my dad went down hill. It is an odd comfort for me to lie to myself and say "He didn't choose this, he was forced into It." but my dad wouldn't let me continue that. He started changing his ways.

Four weeks into his recovery program he turned to me, and with the brightest of smiles said "I would have never made it this far, if my son wasn't there to support me." When he said that, I felt like shit. A feeling that would confuse most, because what happened to my dad was clearly not my fault; but I wanted it to be. For every punch to the face, for every emotional slam I would say to myself, accept this, you deserve this. It made me feel content.

I felt like shit, because I took advantage of my dad's drunken rages, and I knew that, and I was ashamed.

He was always a really caring guy, and he still is.

I'm proud to tell my friends, "Sure you can come over, and my dad's been wondering when you were coming over next." It's a constant reminder to them, that they can stop worrying, my dad's okay now, he's doing fine.

But the earring, you're wondering, why begin a topic with an earring?

It's very funny to say this but, the decision of the earring was one of the _few_ times I choose to do something for myself; and I was told no. That pissed me off, but I stuck to my dad's -and my friends- choice. They all told me I didn't need the earring; I would look more like a punk.

Well of course I didn't _need_ the earring. No one really _needs_ an attractive piece of metal on his or her body. I wanted that earring though. Not because I thought it would make me look cool. Please don't think that, it's just one of those things a teenager gets an itch for I guess.

You want the truth? This is an honest to god no lie. I was walking through the mall and saw this hoop, it was just a plain golden hoop fairly big, you only see a couple of girls wear them now. I saw that and thought _I want that... but I'll make it look better._ So I bought it and made a charm out of metal with a piece of shattered tigers eye in the middle (The tiger's eye came from one of my old necklaces) and a long feather looking tassel on the end, and slid it onto the hoop so it would dangle. Trust me on this it looks cool.

It wasn't until after I was done making it that I realized, I don't have any pierced ears. The problem! But it was quickly solved, there are plenty of shops that do piercing, I was looking at one particular store when my dad stopped me and said a cryptic no.

Would you believe it, I spent three days telling myself everyone knows what's best for me I should just leave it alone.

I was at the mall again on the fourth day, I marched into that store and just started talking with that girl behind the counter, and for some strange and unknown reason I told her about my inner argument over that earring.

She told me I was stupid for berating myself over it. I was old enough to make my own choices, if I wanted an earring I should be able to get an earring, many guys get earrings. Several, in fact. Maybe she was just trying to get a sale but her words made sense. Besides, like she said; if I really didn't like it, I could just take that little sucker out and the hole would close up.

So I plunked my ass in that chair and said, "Shoot me."

And she did.

Surprised, aren't you? It happened just like that, I had barely finished ending that command, and I was already shot with surgical metal. The lady is a dream woman, clearly someone who's used to snot nosed kids chickening out at the last minute. That's okay though, I've only hung out with her for a few days and already she's proven to be one hell of a woman; a real tough bird.

Sorry, sidetracking again... hmm...

I think it was the day after I had got it done that the comments started to fly. I guess one earring does make you stand out. I was honestly shocked, I mean, I see myself in the mirror everyday, and I rarely noticed it! It wasn't a shiny gold either, it was one of those dull gold beginner earrings, not something that brings a lot of attention. To tell the truth, I always regretted my choice because I thought it blended in with my skin (that and my hair covered it a great deal too). But it was like everyone in the school suddenly was installed with either some freaky radar, or that they shoved a metal detector up their ass.

EVERYONE noticed.

Though some of my friends were nice about my decision, Yugi smiled nervously and said it looked neat. Honda, after giving me a strange 'I don't approve' look laughed and said it was cool. It was Ryou's comment that threw me over board. Who would have thought he was thinking about getting a _couple_ himself. He kept asking me questions like:

"Did it hurt?"

"Was the place clean?"

"Were the prices reasonable?"

"What store did you go to?"

"Do you think I would look good with a couple of earrings myself?"

"Hey, Jou, would you come with me when I save up the money to get them done?"

Yeah, shocking. But I did answer every single one of them truthfully; if he was seriously interested then I wasn't going to scare him away from it. I personally think an earring on Ryou would make him look more daring...

"Only at that first moment."

"Yeah, it was pretty clean, it was a jewelry shop."

"Pretty good prices, this baby here cost me about 2,155 yen." (approx. 19 U.S $)

"The shop was that recently opened one "Dnomaid" I think."

"Haha! I think you'd look awesome with a couple studs in ya!"

"Eh?... Uh, sure Ryou, if you really want me to go... I don't mind."

Was the conversation recap necessary? No, I guess not. Wait... Yeah, not really, sorry, but then again I _am_ bored so why not humor me and let me fill you in with actual quotes? I suppose our conversation ended around there.

I still got countless staring but I learned to ignore people watching me again. When I was someone to be avoided and feared, I had to learn to ignore people's stares and their want-to-be whispered comments, it was after Yugi and Seto came into this school that I no longer needed to worry about being noticed, I was able to sit in the shadows once again and just be that person you had to walk pass. Of course after I met Yugi and became friends with Yugi everything changed back to the way it was with everyone staring at me. So I guess ignoring people became something I had to permanently get used to.

So I guess you would be really surprised, and I know you're wondering because it was a BIG deal apparently, to find out that out of possible thousand students, one of them had yet to see my earring. From what we both know, my sudden liking of jewelry was a huge hit for the gossip vine, and this _one certain_ person did not know about it.

Would you laugh at me if I told you, that maybe a part of myself got this earring to stand out, just so this person could see? So they could have something new to tease me with, to insult me with, because lately our conversations have been dieing, we no longer have any "safe" topics anymore.

"What the hell is everyone getting so chatty about Jounouchi!"

"Eh? You mean you don't know?"

"If I had known I would not be asking..."

"You did not notice?"

"Oh my go - (aggravated sigh) notice what?"

"Anything different about me? Anything unusual?"

"No, still the same blonde idiot as always..."

"You mean to tell me, that Mr.Observant, who sees all and knows all, has not heard half the students talking about "Trouble-Making-Jou's newest accessory?" I'll admit... there was no need to be so snappy, for that I will apologize.

"Accessory? Apparently not, dumb dog, now are you going to share?"

"Yeah! How's about this!" Immense pain, I don't think I could tell you just how much that hurt.

In fact it still hurts now, even with the ice, it hurts.

But it didn't hurt as much as him not noticing, he was supposed to notice.

And that, teacher, is why I ripped my earring out of my ear and threw it at Seto Kaiba's face.

* * *

For those who didn't know, this fanfic was done in the style of Jounouchi writing a letter to his detention teacher. (We had to do that for a while, write a letter explaining our actions, sometimes with a word limit)

Hope this was something you liked/enjoyed...

Please leave a review and tell me what you thought!


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